Safety-check for elevators



(No Modem f 2 Sheets Sheet 1.

' J. 8: R. W. HURRELL' SAFETY CHECK FOR ELEVATORS.

No. 602,944. Patented Apr. 26, 1898.

. E i lnwlw/ o o 9% N iw UNITED STATES PATENT runes.

JAMES l-IURRELL AND ROBERT W. HURRELL, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

SAFETY-CH ECK FO R ELEVATORS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 602,944, dated April 26, 1898. Application filed November 16, 1897- Serial llo. 858,714. (1T0 model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES HURRELL and ROBERT WV. HURRELL, citizens of the United States, and residents of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Safety- Oheck for Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to checks or safetystops for elevators,and particularly to checks or stops operable, preferably automatically, immediately upon an elevator-car starting to Y fall or to descend at an unsafe speed.

The object of this invention is to mount safety stops or checks in the elevator-well normally out of the path of the car and to provide means for throwing them into the path of the car when it attains a dangerous speed, this movement of the stops to be effected manually or to be so connected with the elevator mechanism that should a car start to fall the stops will be automatically thrown out and catch the car within a few feet from the point where it attained the maximum speed for which the automatic control shall have been set to act.

To this end the invention consists in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, substantially as hereinafter described, and set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents the interior of an elevator-wellin which the application of this invention is indicated. Fig. 2 represents a plan view of the construction illustrated in Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4c are detail views on an enlarged scale.

This invention is carried out with somewhat the same intention as that which has prompted the location of derailing-switches upon electric and other railroads, the idea there being to stop a runaway car or train with certainty and at a place where the minimum amount of damage may result. This principle is applied in this invention to an elevator, with the idea that it is preferable to bring the car to a sudden and positive stop immediately upon its assuming a dangerous speed, than to take the chances of its being stopped with perhaps greater ease by an air-cushion or other means at the bottom of the elevatoi well. This idea is best carried into effect by locating within the elevator-well, in any suitable manner and at fre quent intervals throughout its length, movable stops or projections, which shall normally be out of the path of the car and which by any suitable means, preferablyautomatic, may be thrown into the path of the car immediately upon its assuming a certain maximum speed. The preferred mode of mounting these stops within the well is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein the upper and lower ends of an elevatorwell are indicated at 5 and the elevator-car at 6, the usual hoisting-cables for the latter being indicated at 7. Within the well, at either side thereof, are represented vertical shafts S 8', which are mounted at their lower ends in suitable step-bearings 9 and are retained in place at their upper ends by suitable bearings, as 10. These shafts may also be sustained throughouttheir length by bearings at suitable intervals. Said intermediate bearings may be of any suitable form-such, for instance, as the bracket-bearin gs indicated at 11 or those indicated at 11, which brackets may be located on the face of the well-walls or let into the same, as circumstances may require. These brackets or intermediate bearings may also be made to support a portion of the weight of the shaft, in which instance suitable antifriction devices may be employed-for instance, as indicated in Fig. 4.

Therein one of the brackets, as 11, is shownprovided with a raceway for a ball-bearing, balls, as 12, being placed therein for the support of a suitable stop, as 13, rigidly mounted in any suitable manner upon the shaft 8. Bracket 11 may also contain a ball-bearing, as indicated at 12, to lessen the lateral friction of the shaft 8. These shafts may be supported at their lower ends in the well-known way-that is, by mounting them upon one or more steel buttons in the step-bearing, as indicated at 15.

The stops or projections for intercepting the car are indicated at 13 and may be secured to the shaft as just described in connection with Fig. 4, or they may be located entirely independently of the brackets 11. They should be placed, however, at no greater distance apart than are the floors of the building in which the elevator is located and may be placed at no greater intervals than the height of the car.

. In order to hold the stops or feet 13 normally out of the path of the car, any suitable retaining device may be employed. One such device is here illustrated as consisting of levers 14;, which are fulcrumed upon suitable posts or supports 15 and engage at their outer ends with arms 16, extending from the shafts 8. The shafts S'maybe rotated by any suitable means to throw the stops or feetinto the path of the carsuch, for instance, as astron g spring or springs, one, as 17, being here shown and connectedat its ends to said arms 1 6. For the sake of clearness in illustration this spring has been omitted from Fig. 1.

As heretofore stated, it is preferable to allow or produce the rotation of the shafts 8 by automatic means.

may be various. A common and reliable means for this purpose consists, as shown, of

a ball-governor the slide of which is indicated at 18 as connected to the levers 14 through the band 19 and links 20, the governor-shaft being supported in any suitable way, as in the vertical bearing 21, and having on its lower end abeveled pinion 22, which coacts with the beveled pinion 23 on the end of shaft 24, a suitable cable-drum 25 being mounted on said shaft and wrapped aboutby one or more turns of the cable 26, the ends of which are attached, respectively, to the upper and lower ends of the car (3 and whose lower loop passes around pulley 27 at the bottomof the well.

Any suitable construction may be employed for producing freedom of motion between the ends of levers 14 and the arms 16. To this end there is represented in the drawings a roller or wheel, as 28, mounted upon the end of each arm 16, while the outer ends of the levers 14 are provided with sectors 29 to engage said wheels.

In the construction just described it will be seen that as the balls of the governor are thrown outwardly to a certain extent the sectors 29 on the levers 14 will be depressed and the arms 16 released, when the spring 17 will swing said arms inwardly, thereby rotating the shafts 8 and carrying the feet or stops 13 into the path of the car.

As above stated, it is preferable to automatically throw the stops into the path of the car; but it is not intended to limit this invention to such automatic action, since it is entirely feasible to trip the retaining-levers 14 by means of a cable extending through the car. Such cable is shown at 30 and has branches at its upper end connected to said levers. The cable may be secured at its lower end to the bottom of the well, and should the car start to fall it will be simply necessary for the attendant on the elevator to catch hold of this cable and trip the retaining-levers. This may be used as an adjunct to the automatic means shown.

The stops may be restored to their normal mal position.

Such automatic means position in any suitable manner, one convenient way of doing so being to provide said stops with means, such as sockets 31, for the insertion or connection therewith of suitable levers, as indicated at 32 in Fig. 1., whereby at any fioor of the elevator-well said levers may be inserted and the shafts 8 rotated into their normal position. To provide for the return of the wheels 28 into the proper 'en gagement with the sectors 29, curved projec tio'ns, such as 33, may be added to said sectors, whereby when the shafts 8 are returned to normal position the wheels 28 will roll over said projections, thereby depressing levers 14 and allowing said wheels to reach their nor- By suitable adjustment of parts the time at which the lovers 14 will be tripped to allow the shafts S to rotate maybe regulated. This may be accomplished in various Waysas, for instance, by'the vertical adjustment of the arms 16 upon the ends of the shafts 8. r

to rotate thereon, but held normally against such rotation by means of a spring, as 35,and a stop, as 36, Fig. 3, which step may engage the set-screw, which retains in place a band or collar 37, employed to support the foot 13'. By this construction provision is made for the complete rotation of a shaft 8, even though the retaining device should be tripped While the car is opposite one of the feet or stops, since the stop or foot which would be thrown against the car would not, because of its spring connection to the shaft, prevent the shaft from rotating and throwing the remaining stops thereon into the path of the car.

In the drawings the shafts 8 have been shown as located at the sides of the car, which would be the natural location thereof in those elevator constructions wherein the guides for the car are located at the corners, as indicated at 38. Should said guides be located at the sides of the car, as in some elevator constructions, the shafts 8, with their steps, may be located at the sides of the guides or at the corners of the well, as circumstances may require.

It is obvious that in elevator constructions where the car runs close to the walls of the well the shafts may be, if necessary, set into the walls. It is also obvious that the system of stops just described may, if desired, be employed to stop an elevator that should start to ascend at a dangerous speed.

WVhat we claim as our invention is 1. The combination with an elevator-well, of horizontally-movable stops located at intervals throughout the length of the well and normally held out of the path of the car, and means for throwing said stops into the path of the car when it attains a dangerous speed.

2. The combination with an elevator well and car, of horizontally-swinging stops located at intervals throughout the length of the well, means for normally holding said stops out of the path of the car, and a tripping device for said stops actuated by the car when it attains a dangerous speed.

3. The combination with an elevator-well, of one or more vertical shaft-s located therein and carrying stops or feet adapted to project into the well and means for rotating said shafts to project said feet into the Well.

4. The combination with an elevator Well and car, of one or more vertical shafts located therein and having each a series of stops or feet projecting therefrom, means tending to throw said feet into the path of the car, a retaining device for holding them against such tendency, and means for tripping said retaining device for the purpose set forth.

5. The combination with an elevator well and car, of vertical shafts located therein and having feet or stops thereon, means for rotating said shafts to throw the feet into the path of the car, a retaining device for normally holding said shafts against rotation, and a governor actuated by the car for tripping said retaining device when the car starts to fall.

6. The combination with an elevator-well, of vertical rotary shafts therein having bearings at intervals throughout their length, feet or stops connected to said shafts and projecting laterally therefrom, and means for rotating said shafts and stops, as and for the purpose set forth.

7. The combination with an elevator-well, of a vertical rotary shaft located therein, stops or feet projecting from the shaft and having a spring connection therewith, as and for the purpose set forth.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 15th day of November, A. D. 1897.

JAMES HURRELL. ROBERT W. HUB-BELL.

Witnesses:

W11. H. CAPEL, DELBERT H. DECKER. 

